To Save a Friend
by Ariane2014
Summary: Written for justanhappyotome on tumblr. Based on the episode "Of Rats and Men" of the 2012 TMNT series. When rodents of unusual sizes attack New York, a young turtle finds himself in the midst of a battle to save a young girl from potential disaster. She had given him tea, and now it was time he returned the favor. [One Shot] Rated T because I'm super paranoid about these things.


**This is for one of my followers on tumblr who requested that I write her a story in regards to her head canon about a certain turtle's tardiness in a certain episode called "Of Rats and Men". This is for you Laryssa :D I hope you like this!**

**As always, I do not own the characters. But I do enjoy getting to play with them :)**

-x-

Leonardo's eyes were wide with horror as he watched the news report with his family and new friend Casey around him. 'Rats? Running around New York? Snatching people?' His mind raced as he began thinking of all the friends he had made on the surface, humans who didn't judge him for being, well, what he was. 'Murakami-san…he's in trouble!'

Feeling himself start to panic, he was lost in his thoughts until he heard Casey comment "Giant rats?! Giant…rats?!"

Then April cut in, her soothing tone bringing Leo's heart rate back under control, "Maybe you should sit this one out, Casey."

Leo took in a deep breath, feeling his mind begin to clear from the earlier chaos. He turned to his sensei and pleaded, "We could really use your help, Sensei. Last time, you took that creep down with one punch!" He was hopeful that Master Splinter would join them on this mission. 'If Sensei comes, then I can make sure our friend is ok!'

His hopes were dashed as Master Splinter replied, "Last time was different, Leonardo. The Rat King has grown too powerful. I do not fear for myself, but what he could…_force _me to do." Leo wilted as he felt the full force of his father's guilt and fear over being mind controlled. None of his brothers seemed to notice how much their first encounter with the new Rat King seemed to weigh on their father's conscious. Leo had nearly been struck down by his own father, and he could understand how it felt to lose control of himself to only hurt those nearest to you.

With a defeated sigh, Leo bowed slightly, "Very well, Sensei. We will handle this on our own." He tried to ignore the way his father shrunk in stature. It hurt Leo to see his father beating himself up over something that he couldn't control, but he had a job to do now. He had to come up with a plan to defeat the Rat King and hopefully keep their friend safe from whatever the psychotic maniac had planned for all the people he was capturing.

He turned his attention to his brothers and said, "Well, it's just the four of us. We can take the go kart and get the rats to follow us. We will — "

"Hold on, Leo!" April interrupted him. Leo stared at her in confusion as she continued, "What do you mean there's just 'four of us'? What am I? Chopped liver? You can't keep me out of the mission this time! NO WAY!" Leo blinked as she crossed her arms in front of her chest, her expression just daring him to force her to stay in the lair where it was safe.

Casey had stopped quivering in place on the couch and stood up, moving himself next to April and declared, "Exactly! There's six of us! I refuse to let stupid rats terrorize my city! So…you have to count me in too!" Casey and Raph exchanged a glance, and Casey offered his good friend a thumbs up and a crooked smile. Raph smiled, giving his brother a look as if to say 'C'mon Fearless. Let'em come!'

Leo had to admire their human friends for their determination, but he shook his head while stating, "It's too dangerous! They are capturing people! What would happen if you guys get caught?" His thoughts again went to the kind chef. 'What if he is already caught?'

April and Casey gave each other disappointed looks, as much as they could complain, Leo was notoriously stubborn when it came to ensuring the safety of the people he cared about. Then Raph stepped in and grumbled, "Leo, we may as well let them come. Remember what happened the last time we tried to keep April out of the action?" Leo shuddered as the memory flashed through his mind while Raph kept going, "And Casey is a good fighter. We could use their help."

"Logically speaking, we are already outnumbered," Donnie started chiming in, "we would stand a better chance of success if we had more people on our side."

Mikey kept silent, and Leo was not sure if that had something to do with his having been caught doing suspicious things in front of the freezer or if the hyperactive ninja had already stopped paying attention to what was going on around him.

Leo met the eyes of everyone around him, their expectant gazes warring with his indecision. A small grin formed on his face as he thought 'If they all come, then I can sneak away to check on Murakami-san.' Giving in he stated, "Very well. Let's do this!"

"Yes!" "Oh yeah!" "Time to kick some tail!" April, Casey and Raph cheered, thrilled that Leo had decided the benefits of having everyone participate far outweighed the risks involved. They began to talk amongst themselves excitedly, until Donatello brought up a very good point.

"How are we supposed to get them to follow us?" Donnie asked, looking at Leo with a curious expression.

Leo grinned as he said, "We will need someone to be bait."

Michelangelo was still off in his own world, and he didn't return to the conversation until he felt five pairs of glittering eyes focused on him. He shrunk under the combined power of their gazes and smiled hesitantly, "Uh, guys? I don't know about this. I mean, rats don't eat turtle. I'm not sure —"

Raphael approached his baby brother warmly and gave him some swift pats on the back as he assured, "Don't worry Mikey. We've got it covered." Leo could tell that judging by the expression on Mikey's face, he was not convinced this was going to be a fun experience.

"Okay everyone. So here's the plan. April, Raph and Donnie, you will take the go karts. Mikey, you are going with them to help lure the rats away from people. Casey, you will provide them with back up."

"So what are you gonna do, Leo?" Raph asked curiously.

"I'm going to check on a few things and then I'll join you guys in the Shell Raiser." As Leo began to turn around to leave he stated, "I'm going on ahead. You guys head up when you are ready." And without waiting for them to question him, he bolted out of the lair, muttering to himself, "I've got to find him! I have to make sure he's safe!"

When Leo reached the surface, he was instantly met with complete chaos. The rat creatures were chasing down people in droves. Disdain filled him as he leapt out from underneath the manhole cover and quickly took out one such creature with a swift blow from his katana. Concern for his friend's welfare drove him as he dashed over to Murakami's Noodle Shop. He was almost there when a scream made his blood run cold.

"EEEEEK!"

He froze in his tracks and turned to look over in the direction where the scream had come from. His eyes widened in horror as he spotted that the girl he had had tea with all those weeks ago. She was surrounded by five of those rat monsters and was curled up into the fetal position, crying while she clung to a doll, "Daddy…come back…"

Leo watched as the five rat monsters circled her, each of them growling with glee at the prospect of grabbing her. A protective urge took hold of him as he dashed in as fast as his legs would carry him. 'I didn't save you from drinking mutagen just to have you fall victim to a mutant rat!'

As one of the rats made a dive for the girl, she let out a piercing scream "HELP!"

Leo felt his ninja instincts activate and he threw three shrunken at the attacking rodent with a deadly accuracy. With a final leap, he placed himself right between her and the other rats who were looking at each other in confusion. Panting with effort, he gazed down at the little girl and asked, "Are you alright?"

The girl lifted her eyes to meet his and she gasped as she recognized him. "Mr. Turtle!"

Leo smiled down at her and nodded, "Yep. I'm Mr. Turtle."

Tears filled her eyes as she clung to him, blubbering "I was so scared! Those monsters! They took my daddy away!"

Leo narrowed his eyes as he turned a hateful glare upon the rodents who were starting to recover from his unexpected arrival in the park. They were grunting and growling at each other, watching him with wary red eyes. Leo knew he couldn't very well take them all on while protecting her, so he held her tight to his plastron and told her, "Hold on. I'll get you somewhere safe."

The girl complied, holding on to Leo tightly as he began to carry her away from the park in a rush. She couldn't believe the speed with which he seemed to fly down the street. "Are you a super hero?" she asked curiously.

"Haha. No, not really. I'm a ninja." He replied between breaths. He wanted to get her to the lair as quickly as possible. He looked thoughtful for a moment as he realized he didn't know her name, and he felt weird referring to her as 'the girl he had tea with'. When he stopped for a brief moment to catch his breath, he asked, "So, what's your name?"

The girl looked up at him with a shy smile as she replied, "Lauren."

Leo smiled, and dipped his head as he reintroduced himself, "Nice to meet you, Lauren. I'm Mr. Turtle." A warm feeling spread through his chest as he watched her smile reach her eyes. Sensing the presence of company, Leo whirled around, clutching tight to Lauren as his sharp eyes searched the nearby alleys for any sign of the rat mutants.

"What's wrong, Mr. Turtle?" Lauren asked nervously, trying to imitate Leo's intense gaze as he tried to peer into the shadows from where they stood in front of the candy store. They had gone about three blocks from the park, and as far as Lauren was concerned, the monsters were gone.

"Shh!" Leo hissed, feeling uneasy since he hadn't seen anything even though his instincts were screaming at him that something was definitely wrong here. He started to back into the candy store, making sure his eyes stayed fixed on the street.

When he got inside, he placed Lauren down behind the counter and spoke, "Lauren, I need you to stay here. I'm going out to check on something."

As he started to walk away he felt Lauren cling to him as she cried, "Mr. Turtle! Don't leave me! What if those monsters come?!"

Guilt gnawed at him as he continued in his newfound leader voice, "Lauren. Calm down. I promise, I'll be right back. If you come with me, you'll only put us both at risk."

Leo felt a pang of regret as he heard Lauren ask, "You'll come back? You won't leave me?"

He glanced over his shoulder to look at her scared face and nodded, giving her a thumbs up as he replied, "Definitely. I promise, I won't let anything happen to you." Seeing her face brighten gave him the courage he needed to leave her behind in the candy store.

Leo drew one of his katana from its sheath as he walked out the door. His blue eyes were like a hawk's as he searched for a rodent creature. After a tense silence filled the air around him, he finally spotted what he had been looking for. There were three rodent creatures approaching with their noses to the ground as if they were dogs on a scent trail. "Tsk, I knew there was trouble nearby." He grumbled to himself as he thought of his brothers. 'I hope they are doing alright because it doesn't look like I'll be joining up with them for a while.'

He ducked into the shadow of a nearby alleyway, keeping a wary eye on the rodents as they approached Lauren's hiding place. Bunching his muscles together, he pounced on the one in the front, taking it out quickly with a swift jab to the neck. Then he braced himself as the other two moved to tear at him with giant claws and teeth. As he dispatched both of them without too much difficulty, he heard Lauren scream "MR. TURTLE! HELP!"

Leo whirled around, surprised that she was calling out to him. 'Surely there isn't one —" His thoughts came to a complete halt as he saw a rat creature scurry into the candy story, it's pink tail lashing in excitement. "Hold on Lauren!" he called out as he ran toward the candy store. He was so distracted that he failed to realize that two rodents pounced on him, snapping their jaws with glee. 'Where did these come from?' Leo thought, struggling to make sense of how he miscalculated their numbers.

As he struggled to wiggle free, he watched in horror as Lauren was being dragged out of the candy store by the monster. Her gaze locked with his, and Leo hated how her eyes were filled with terror. Growling viciously, he struggled with renewed vigor as he yelled, "Lauren! Hold on! I'm coming!" Just as he managed to get out from underneath the rats, he felt a tail wrap around his ankle and toss him into a brick wall.

"MR. TURTLE! NOOO!" was the last thing he heard before his world went completely black.

…

When Leo next opened his eyes, the first sensation he felt was that his head was throbbing. As he weakly managed to sit up, his mind immediately thought of Lauren. "Lauren…hold on…" he mumbled as he struggled to his feet. Swaying dangerously, he stumbled forward for a few steps and then collapsed to his knees, cursing himself for failing to protect Lauren from the creatures. 'If only I'd been faster, had realized that there were more than three of them…poor Lauren…'

He drew in a deep breath. Getting upset would only make things harder on him, not that the pounding headache made it any easier. 'Calming breaths…calming breaths' he mentally repeated to himself until he felt his emotions settle back down into a more tranquil state. "Hmm, what should I do now?" He asked himself, not caring at this point if he was overheard. As he pondered this, he remembered he was supposed to meet his brothers a long time ago.

Gritting his teeth in frustration, he eventually managed to force himself to his feet and ran over to where his katana lay discarded in the middle of the street. After sheathing his blade, he ran for home, hoping to get to the Shell Raiser in time to catch up to his brothers as well as — hopefully — be able to rescue Lauren before anything too bad happened to her.

He was not surprised to see that his brothers, Casey and April had already left the lair to start their mission. He was very relieved to find that the Shell Raiser was all ready for him, the motor humming a low and eager tone. With a smile, he jumped into the driver's seat and sped out of the tunnel as fast as he possibly could.

Once on the surface, it didn't take him long to locate where his brothers had been. They left a path of destruction behind that you would have to be blind not to notice. Eventually, he got close enough to start hearing his brothers yelling at each other.

"Why do I have to wear the cheese?!" He heard Mikey protest in panic.

"We have to lead them away, and you're awesome at being bait" Raph's voice reached his ears. Leo could almost imagine the smirk on his face as his immediately younger brother teased the baby.

Then Casey's voice reached him. "This is the worst thing ever!" Leo had to admit, he didn't really expect Casey to be out and about as long as he was with all the rats running around.

That was when Leo managed to spot his brothers and April in the go kart. Biting his lip, he pushed the Shell Raiser to her fastest speed so that he could meet up with them.

"Waaaah! FASTER! FASTER! FASTER!" Mikey yelled, his voice raising in pitch as the rodents started to close in on him.

Then Leo managed to pull in front of his brothers, taking a quick moment to say loudly, "Sorry I'm late!" He drove straight through a blockade of vehicles that would have seriously damaged the go karts, but the Shell Raiser was tough enough to take a little abuse.

Now that Leo was back with his brothers, he had only one goal in mind. To save Lauren, the girl with the tea, from whatever plans the Rat King had in store for all the people he had captured using his rodents of unusual sizes.

-x-

**Well, I think this turned out pretty well. :) As always, feel free to let me know what you all think of this little one-shot in the review box. As for whether or not Lauren is rescued…you'll just have to watch the episode to find out ;) I try not to spoil things as a policy of mine. Hahaha. Feel free to check out my other stories if you want. I am almost finished with Ten Seconds for Disaster and am currently working on the next part of A Madman's Revenge. **

**I love you all, my dear readers! Until next time, happy reading/writing!**

**-Ariane**


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